The bounce house is coming! The bounce house is coming!

Saturday is Finn and Ella's combined b-day party. I am trying to keep it as simple and low-key as possible (except for the bounce house), but it gets expensive fast. We have gone to Build-A-Bear parties where each kid gets to make a stuffed animal, parties with treasure hunts and customized framed pictures of the b-day kid with each guest, parties with Hannah Montana look-alikes and on and on. What happened to cake, a hot game of pin the tail on the donkey, here's your balloon and goodbye? It seems like we have forgotten how little it takes for kids to have fun. I trying to think of party favors that won't just be another piece of cluttery junk when the kids get home. I would love to give sparklers since it will be close to the 4th of July, but I doubt the parents would appreciate that. Any suggestions? Anyone with me to overthrow the current over-the top party regime? Well, I'm off to obsessively clean my house so I can impress the kiddies!